Tuesday, February 15, 2011

HT:BarracudaBrigade.Did the‘Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse’ Show up in Cairo?When an eerie, pale-green image appeared in a recent Euronews report on the Egyptian unrest, some bloggers asked an interesting question: “Is this the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse?” Foxnation.com, a news aggregation division of Fox, picked up on the story and repeated the same question. But while video does show something odd, the way some covered the story is overshadowing the story itself.The liberal website Goddiscussion.com agrees the image is probably a lens reflection, and quotes one commenter who explains:

Notice how this “horseman” only begins moving when the camera pans to the right, moves at the same rate as the camera, and that other lights in the frame also move at the same time. lol

This is nothing more than a reflection from the fire. This is the same as when you take a photo towards the sun, and washout/spots appear in the photo.Hmmmm....Well you judge by yourselves but the horse rider is already moving before the camera and at a faster rate then the camera according to me.Watch the closeup here.

Islamists spark anger after calling for gay-free zone in East London.Islamists in East London have sparked anger after flyposting stickers which called for a gay-free zone.The stickers were distributed around the Whitechapel, Shoreditch and Poplar areas over the weekend. Specifically, they were targeted at schools and pubs, including the gay-friendly George and Dragon.The professionally produced, anonymous stickers say: “Arise and Warn. Gay free zone. Verily Allah is severe in punishment.”The 'Gay free zone' slogan is within a diagonal bar across a rainbow flag.Equality campaigner Peter Tatchell – who has been attacked by Muslim groups three times in the capital – condemned the behaviour.He said: "These stickers are part of a trend by Islamists and fundamentalists to target LGBT people. It is happening at universities and in communities. The main victims of this hate-mongering are LGBT Muslims."A venue attached to the East London mosque hosted a speaker who invited his audience to: 'Spot the fag.' There have been a series of homophobic threats and assaults by Asian youths on LGBT people in the East End over recent years."I’ve been attacked by Muslim youths three times in and around Brick Lane. In all three attacks, the assailants shouted religious slogans. My LGBT Muslim friends who live in the area are nervous and anxious. They fear attack and dare not reveal their sexuality."This small group of narrow minded people do not represent Islam or the Muslim community. In fact, a sentiment of rejection and condemnation for such a small group is growing among all Muslims. It is our duty to stop them and stand up to them whether we are Muslims, Jews or Christians."Hmmmmm....."This small group of narrow minded people do not represent Islam or the Muslim community"And what does the Quran say on this subject?It's called Al-taqiyya Dummy!Read the full story here.

Bahrain protesters take control of main square.DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Thousands of protesters poured into a main square in Bahrain's capital Tuesday in an Egypt-style rebellion that sharply escalated pressure on authorities as the Arab push for change gripped the Gulf for the first time. Security forces have battled demonstrators over two days, leading to the deaths of two protesters. In a clear sign of concern over the widening crisis, Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa made a rare national TV address, offering condolences for the deaths, pledging an investigation into the killings, and promising to push ahead with reforms, which include loosening state controls on the media and Internet.As the crowds surged into Pearl Square in the capital of Manama, security forces appeared to hold back. The dramatic move Tuesday comes just hours after a second protester died in clashes with police in the strategic island kingdom, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. Oppositions groups are calling for greater political freedom and an end to the ruling Sunni monarchy's grip on key decisions and government posts. The nation's majority Shiites have long complained of discrimination. Many in the square- which was quickly renamed the "Nation's Square" by protesters - waved Bahraini flags and chanted: "No Sunnis, no Shiites. We are all Bahrainis." Bahrain is one of the most politically volatile nations in the Middle East's wealthiest corner. A prolonged showdown could draw in the region's two biggest rivals: Saudi Arabia, as close allies of Bahrain's Sunni monarchy, and Iran, whose hard-liners have spoken in support of the nation's Shiite majority.Hmmmm......The world became such a safer place since Obama became president.Read the full story here.

HT:AmnonAndJonathan.Report - Hosny Mubarak is in Israel at a luxuary hotel in Eliat.The Israel-based news site Al-Arab reported Tuesday.Locals said there was a huge presence of Israeli security forces surrounding the hotel, and airplanes were hovering above monitoring activity in the area, the Arabic-language report said.A hotel employee revealed that Mubarak was a guest at the hotel, according to the news site.Hmmmm.....With "friends" like obama he can not expect to be treated worse in Israel. Read the full story here.

Khamenei lauds Turkey's 'separation from Zionist regime'. During Tehran meeting, Iranian supreme leader tells President Gul US, Israel 'hegemony in Egypt' main cause of revolution. 'Muslim world can play role in international developments,' he adds.Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised Turkey for distancing itself from Israel and increasing its support for the Palestinians, Iranian state TV reported Tuesday.During a meeting with Turkish President Abdullah Gul in Tehran, Khamenei said political changes in Ankara – particularly its "separation from the Zionist regime" – have brought Turkey closer to the Muslim world. "This is a proper policy. The more Turkey approaches the Muslim world, the more it will be in its own and the Muslim world's favor,” Khamenei reportedly told Gul. The supreme leader, who did not address the recent protests against the regime in Tehran, added that "years of the US and the Zionist regime's hegemony in Egypt and the humiliation of people were the main reasons behind the mass protests in Cairo. Egyptians are a Muslim nation which has strong Islamic motivation.”Hmmm......Just keep Turkey out of the European Union.Turkey could never be part of the European Union whose guiding principles inculde liberty, free speech and democracy.After having destroyed the military who were faithfull to the principles of Attaturk and protected the secular state ,they will turn now Turkey in a second Iran.Get Turkey out of NATO NOW !Read the full story here.

Justice Department Resists Releasing Records That Could Shed Light on Whether Justice Kagan Needs to Recuse Herself from Health Care Case.The U.S. Justice Department is contesting in federal court a Freedom of Information Act request filed by CNSNews.com that seeks department records that could shed light on the question of whether Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan needs to recuse herself from legal challenges to the health-care reform law President Barack Obama signed last March.The case—the Media Research Center v. the U.S. Justice Department—arises from a complaint the Media Research Center filed on Nov. 23, 2010 against the Justice Department in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The complaint asked the court to direct the Justice Department to comply with a FOIA request that CNSNews.com had initially submitted to the Office of the Solicitor General on May 25, 2010. CNSNews.com is a division of the Media Research Center.The CNSNews.com FOIA asked for three categories of records. These included records of any meetings or communications Kagan might have participated in as solicitor general that involved President Obama’s health-care reform plan, records of any meetings or communications Kagan might have participated in in which legal challenges to the health-care legislation signed by President Obama were discussed, and records of any meetings or communications Kagan might have participated in in which there was discussion of whether Kagan ought to recuse herself from involvement in any particular case in her role as solicitor general due to the prospect that case might later come before her were she confirmed to a seat on a federal court.On Dec. 30, the Justice Department filed an answer to the MRC’s complaint, asking the court to dismiss the complaint, but not citing any specific exemption in the Freedom of Information Act that would justify such a dismissal.The Justice Department now has until March 1 to present the court with a brief asking for summary judgment in its favor.Federal law mandates that a Supreme Court justice must recuse herself from a case if she previously expressed an opinion about its merits while in government service.At the time that President Obama signed his health-care reform law, Kagan was serving as President Obama’s solicitor general and President Obama had not yet nominated her to the Supreme Court.Kagan’s job as solicitor general was to defend the administration’s position in federal court cases. On March 23, 2010, the day Obama signed his health-care reform law—and seven weeks before Obama would nominate Kagan to the Supreme Court--Florida and Virginia filed suit against the law in federal court challenging its constitutionality. Also on that day, 12 states joined Florida in its suit against the law.Kagan was Obama’s solicitor general at a time when Obama’s most significant legislative accomplishment was being constitutionally challenged in a federal court system at whose pinnacle she now sits--on the very panel that must ultimately settle the challenges.In a questionnaire that she filled out for the Senate Judiciary Committee prior to her confirmation hearings, Kagan said she would abide by the “letter and spirit” of 28 U.S.C. 455, a federal law governing the recusal of federal judges, including Supreme Court justices.Prof. Ronald Rotunda of the Chapman University School of Law, a legal ethics expert, told the Senate Judiciary Committee during Kagan’s confirmation hearings that 28 U.S.C. 455 requires Kagan to recuse herself from any case that she so much as expressed a verbal opinion about when serving as solicitor general.“The statute does not limit disqualification to cases where General Kagan’s name is on the brief, nor does the statute require that she express her opinion ‘in writing,” Rotunda said in written testimony.Hmmmm.....As one commentator puts it "There's nothing like having a "justice department" that resists the pursuit of justice... but then again, what did we expect... hope? change?"Read the full story here.

HT:Newsmax.Obama 'Furious' With Hillary State Department Over Egypt.Is a civil war brewing between the Obama White House and Hillary Clinton's State Department?A New York Times story published this weekend suggests one may have erupted already.On Saturday, the Times, quoting numerous White House sources, sought to explain the Obama administration's erratic policy statements during the Egyptian crisis.The paper reported that Obama was "seething" over State Department officials's statement suggesting that the administration did not want a quick transition of power in Egypt, with President Hosni Mubarak stepping down from his office immediately.Obama felt that the State Department "made it look as if the administration were protecting a dictator and ignoring the pleas of the youths of Cairo."As Secretary Clinton and her special envoy Frank Wisner repeatedly called for an orderly transition that would include President Mubarak remaining in office for at least a period of time, Obama and his team studiously sought to undermine the State Department stance.The Times states that Mr. Obama "was furious" about Clinton's and Wisner's statements, "as Mr. Obama was demanding that change in Egypt begin right away."Secretary Clinton was not the only figure who opposed Obama's view. Clinton was joined by Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who also were advocating that Obama adhere to a cautious and more traditional foreign policy approach toward the situation in Egypt.Unhappy about the mixed signals high-ranking officials were giving, Obama intervened directly, telling White House advisers that "this was not the message we should be delivering.Hmmmm..........Definition of a dictator :"A person who believes that he has a divine message, but has misread the postmark. Dictators make huey while the sun shines. When alive they believe that they bring relief to the masses. When dead they do.Yesterday about the Iranian protests it was also Hillary who spoke up....an indication?"Read the full story here.

Russian FM to US: Don't stir up protests in Middle East.After meeting British PM Cameron, counterpart Hague, Lavrov says Moscow is "convinced that calls for revolutions are counterproductive."LONDON — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that the US and Western allies should not stir up pro-democracy protests in the Middle East following the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.After meeting with members of Britain's government, Lavrov warned against any attempts by other nations to fuel public dissent.In recent days Iran's opposition has taken to the streets of central Tehran, while demonstrators have held protests in Bahrain and Yemen."We are convinced that calls for revolutions are counterproductive. We have had more than one revolution in Russia, and we believe that we don't need to impose revolutions on others," Lavrov told reporters. "We don't think that we need to tighten the screw, or take sides."Lavrov was holding talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague, and seeking to bolster ties badly damaged by the 2006 poisoning death in London of dissident ex-Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko.At a news conference with Hague, Lavrov insisted the international community should restrict itself to urging regimes in the Middle East and northern Africa to hold talks aimed at meeting the demands of protesters."Only in this way we can ensure the stable evolution into the direction that will be in the interests of each country," Lavrov said.Britain planned to make a "patient, steady improvement" in its relations with Russia, while acknowledging the two countries still have major disagreements on some issues, Hague said.His ministry confirmed there would be no change on Britain's policy of not cooperating with Russia's Federal Security Service, the main successor to the feared Soviet KGB, and known by its Russian language acronym, the FSB.Hmmm......We had enough experiance with one Revolution comrade?Read the full story here.

HT:Undhimmi.Danish Muslims Increasingly Converting to Christianity.… but of course risk death for doing so, as the Religion of Peace does not like apostates. At all.Four steps down and into holy water. A deep breath and a firm grip on the vicar’s hand as body and face submerge, to emerge again in the Christian faith.43-year-old Safiya has taken a controversial decision; in baptism she has taken the final step in putting her Muslim past behind her.“It is not an easy choice, but necessary for me if I am to feel a complete person,” says an enthusiastic Safiya as she takes in a standing ovation from members of the Free Church of Love.An Iranian, Safiya has joined the ranks of the 100-150 other Muslims in Denmark who will convert to Christianity this year.Priests, ecclesiastical organisations and experts all agree that the number of those who convert from Islam to Christianity has steadily increased in recent years.“I would say that there are 100-150 Muslims in Denmark who convert each year,” says Intercultural Studies Expert Mogens Mogensen Ph. D.Mogensen has carried out the most extensive survey ever of conversions from Islam to Christianity in Denmark. The survey concludes that almost 1,000 Muslims converted between 1980 and 2007.“But in recent years the phenomenon has increased. Probably as a result of the fact that through education and work, Muslims have had much closer contact with Christians in Denmark and their values. We see a clear correlation between integration and the number of conversions,” Mogensen says.“The Muslims who take up residency in Denmark are challenged by another religious understanding and thus ask themselves questions about religion. The world is becoming much more globalised and will result in more people challenging what they come from,” says Simonsen.Of course her name is an alias. It has to be. The passage from the Qur’an above is not some anachronistic whimsy. Muslims actively pursue ex-Muslims and often attempt to kill them.Yet the more Muslims are exposed to a civilised, democratic society (as opposed to living out separate lives in self-segregating immigrant communities) – and given the security to remove the oppressive yoke of a faith, which unlike any other removes the option to leave it under the pain of death – the more they indeed leave.For just what kind of a ‘faith’ can it be, which forces you to remain within its strictures under pain of death?Hmmmm......Jesus said "...you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."John 8:32. Read the full story here.

Thousands of Protesters Take Control of Bahrain's Main Square.Thousands of protesters poured into a main square in Bahrain's capital of Manama Tuesday in an Egypt-style rebellion that sharply escalated pressure on authorities as the Arab push for change gripped the Gulf for the first time.Security forces have battled demonstrators calling for political reforms and greater freedoms over two days, leading to the deaths of two protesters and the main opposition group vowing to freeze its work in parliament in protest.In a clear sign of concern over the widening crisis, Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa made a rare national TV address, offering condolences for the deaths, pledging an investigation into the killings and promising to push ahead with reforms, which include loosening state controls on the media and Internet."We extend our condolences to the parents of the dear sons who died yesterday and today. We pray that they are inspired by the Almighty's patience, solace and tranquility," said the king, who had previously called for an emergency Arab summit to discuss the growing unrest.As the crowds surged into the Pearl Square in the capital of Manama, security forces appeared to hold back. But key highways were blocked in an apparent attempt to choke off access to the vast traffic circle -- which protesters quickly renamed "Nation's Square" and erected banners such as "Peaceful" that were prominent in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of protests there.The main Shiite opposition group, Al Wefaq, denounced the "bullying tactics and barbaric policies pursued by the security forces" and said it was suspending its participation in parliament, where it holds 18 of the 40 seats.The declaration falls short of pulling out the group's lawmakers, which would spark a full-scale political crisis. But Al Wefaq warned that it could take more steps if violence persists against marchers staging the first major rallies in the Gulf since uprisings toppled long-ruling regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.A statement from Bahrain's interior minister, Lt. Gen. Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, expressed "sincere condolences and deep sympathy" to Mushaima's family. He expanded on the king's pledge: stressing that the deaths will be investigated and charges would be filed if authorities determined excessive force was used against the protesters.But that's unlikely to appease the protesters, whose "day of rage" Monday coincided with major anti-government demonstrations in Iran and Yemen.Bahrain's ruling Sunni dynasty also has extremely close ties with the leadership in Saudi Arabia, which is connected to Bahrain by a causeway. Bahrain has given citizenship to Sunnis in Saudi Arabia and across the region to bolster its ranks against the country's Shiite majority.Bahrain's Sunni leaders point to parliamentary elections as a symbol of political openness. But many Sunnis in Bahrain also are highly suspicious of Shiite activists, claiming they seek to undermine the state and have cultural bonds with Shiite heavyweight Iran.Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

HT:Newmax.FBI: 100 Percent Chance of WMD Attack!The probability that the U.S. will be hit with a weapons of mass destruction attack at some point is 100 percent, Dr. Vahid Majidi, the FBI’s assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, tells Newsmax.Such an attack could be launched by foreign terrorists, lone wolves who are terrorists, or even by criminal elements, Majidi says. It would most likely employ chemical, biological, or radiological weapons rather than a nuclear device.As it is, Majidi says, American intelligence picks up hundreds of reports each year of foreign terrorists obtaining WMD. When American forces invaded Afghanistan, they found that al-Qaida was working on what Majidi calls a “nascent” weapons of mass destruction effort involving chemical and biological weapons.In every other case so far, the reports of foreign terrorists obtaining WMD have turned out to be unfounded. However, Majidi’s directorate within the FBI investigates more than a dozen cases in the U.S. each year where there was intent to use WMD.For example, in 2008, the FBI arrested Roger Bergendorff, who was found to have ricin and anarchist literature. Ricin kills cells by inhibiting protein synthesis. Within several days, the liver, spleen, and kidneys of a person who inhales or ingests ricin stop working, resulting in death.“The notion of probability of a WMD attack being low or high is a moot point because we know the probability is 100 percent,” Majidi says. “We’ve seen this in the past, and we will see it in the future. There is going to be an attack using chemical, biological or radiological material.”“While all of these guys are still interested in potentially using chemical, biological, or radiological weapons wherever it is possible, the pragmatic approach that they have taken is to use what has worked for them best, which is various forms of explosives and improvised explosives,” Majidi says.“The latest round is concealing explosives coming through the commercial shipping environment,” Majidi notes. “That brings to the fore the fact that explosives are something that we’re not going to get away from any time soon. It’s the modality that is most often preferred by a pragmatic adversary.”Given the sensitivity and complexity of the subject, Majidi says he tries to present all the issues in context: “One of my jobs is to make sure I put all of these things in an appropriate light, because if you were in my job you would see that everyone always tries to elevate things to a tremendous level.”Of one thing Majidi is sure: “There’s a probability of 100 percent that a WMD event will happen.”Read the full story here.

The Netherlands - Geert Wilders Court Case Restarts from Scratch.The entire court case against MP Geert Wilders will be retried. His lawyer Bram Moszkowicz yesterday obtained the right to conduct his entire defence anew, including challenging the validity of the Public Prosecutor (OM) case.The lawyer wants to ensure via the challenge - a request to declare the OM's case inadmissible - that the OM loses its right to prosecute. If this is successful the case will have to be dropped. Moszkowicz will among other things argue that it is not possible to prosecute Wilders because he is an MP.The OM wanted to resume the case where it had been adjourned, meaning the defence would not be allowed to challenge the OM again. Moszkowicz unsuccessfully challenged the OM before. But the judges that handled the case then have been replaced.The case was earlier suspended halfway through because the three sitting judges had given the impression of bias. At the request of Wilders and his defence, they were replaced by three new judges.These judges decided yesterday that Moszkowicz can challenge the OM again. The district court in Amsterdam also allowed Wilders to call three witnesses. These are Judge Tom Schalken and Islam experts Hans Jansen and Bertus Hendriks. Wilders asked for another 15 witnesses to be heard, but these were all rejected.Schalken, Jansen and Hendriks met one another earlier in the proceedings, a day before Jansen was to testify in the case. Jansen says that the judge tried to convince him that Wilders was guilty. Wilders wants the judge to be prosecuted in separate proceedings for influencing a witness.Hmmmm....."Luctor Et Emergo"...Smiles.Read the full story here.

Israel monitoring Iranian warship plans.Israel is closely monitoring Iranian plans to deploy warships in the Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, Israeli security officials said.Officials described deployment of ships to those areas and plans to dock at a Syrian port for a year as "serious provocation," the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday.There is no justification for Iran to deploy warships to the Mediterranean Sea, and if it does Israel will view the move as "a change in the situation -- and Israel will know how to deal with it," a senior Israeli official told the newspaper.Iranian warships are now deployed in Bab el-Mandeb, between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean, joining international efforts to combat piracy, the newspaper said. Western intelligence officials have said that Iranian warships deployed in the Red Sea may be in involved in supplying radical Islamic groups from Yemen with weapons, the report said. Earlier this month, Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, Iranian navy commander, told the Fars news agency his country intends to maintain a powerful and permanent presence in a bid to protect the interests of Iran in the "strategic waters north of the Indian Ocean."Read the full story here.

HT:BigPeace.Turkey: Islamist Consolidate Power By Purging The Military.While everyone’s eyes are on Egypt and its possible Islamization, something even more significant is going on under the wire in Turkey.The government of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan took a major step towards consolidating its regime by conducting what amount to show trials of high ranking military officers and political opponents on charges that they attempted to overthrow Erdogan’s Islamist government in 2003.A Turkish court ruled Friday, February 12th that 133 current and former Turkish military officers must be immediately arrested and jailed pending the outcome of their trial on charges of plotting to overthrow the government and issued warrants for the immediate arrests of 29 other officers.The Erdogan government was obviously made aware of the ruling in advance. As soon as the ruling was issued by the bench, the court’s doors were sealed, security forces cleared the courtroom and the defendants, including the former air force and navy chiefs were immediately arrested and are being held without bail.The defendants face between 15 and 20 years in prison if convicted on charges of “attempting to topple the government by force.”At the same time, more than 400 others — including academics, journalists, politicians and soldiers — are on trial on separate charges of plotting to bring down the government.Both ‘conspiracies’ – dubbed “Balyoz” (Sledgehammer) and “Ergenekon” – appear to be based on fairly flimsy evidence.This is no small matter.Turkey’s 1982 constitution proclaims Turkey’s system of government as democratic, secular, and parliamentary and the country’s original Constitution makes the military the guardian of Turkey’s secular rule. The largely secular Turkish military has historically been a check on both Islamist and Leftist elements in the country.Erdogan and the AKP party checkmated that role by winning a referendum on September 12, 2010 on constitutional amendments that removed the remaining obstacles to its absolute power, targeting the courts and the military.Among other things, the referendum allowed Erdogan to change the rules and try retired members of the Turkish military in civil court who participated in the last military coup against an Islamist government, back in 1980 when Turkey was beset by internal violence. It also allows him to try the current ‘conspirators’ in civilian rather than military courts. This ensures that the Turkish military will no longer be the guard of secularism that it was, and to guarantee that, the very composition of the military is being changed as AKP President Abdullah Gul has been intervening in promotions and appointments of generals to block all non-Islamists from acquiring command positions.Second, to make sure the outcome of the trials aren’t in doubt, the new changes expanded the nation’s constitutional court from 11 to 17 judges and provides that the prime minister, Erdogan appointed 14 of them, with the legislature – that’s Erdogan’s AKP Party – choosing the other three.Having finished appointing his hand picked new judges, Erdogan is using them to get rid of political opposition to him in the military and civil society, and to further consolidate the AKP’s rule and the increasing Islamization of Turkish law and society.Nor is this simply a local matter. Turkey is a full fledged NATO member with the largest conventional military in Europe and full access to all of NATO’s security secrets. Aside from pursuing Islamism at home, Erdogan’s foreign policy has involved distancing Turkey from the West and cozying up to Iran and Syria, even to the extent of ignoring the UN sanctions . Iran, in fact, has reportedly agreed to contribute $25 million to the AKP to help Erdogan and his party in the coming elections, Turkish-Iranian trade has gone up 86 percent in the past year and Iranians have been using Turkish shell companies as the lifeline for supplies for Iran’s missile program. Small wonder Iran’s President Ahmadinejad has lauded Turkey as Iran’s ally on repeated occasions.We are watching the transformation of Turkey from a secular democracy allied to the West into something very different right before our eyes.Hmmm.....What have i been saying for the past 6 months?What is even more worrying is that Obama conciders Turkey and it's leadership as close friends!Read the full story here.

HT:AmericanThinker.The Next Black President?When Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States, even those who opposed his liberal policies secretly had a fleeting moment of patriotic pride. America had elected our first African-American president. Finally, our nation had overcome the injustices of the past and "the dawn of a new day" had arrived where most Americans were no longer judging or being judged based on skin color. Regrettably, the feeling of national dignity was short lived. As it turned out, Barack Obama's goal was to get "others to think [more] highly" of Barack Obama than the nation whose citizens he was elected to lead. What a shame. Truth is, the most unfortunate aspect of having Obama as America's first black president is that it is Obama who is America's first black president.If only the first choice had been an outstanding man of color like Allen West or the spectacular Herman Cain. Both are patriotic individuals who love and recognize their country's greatness. Moreover, despite the reality of past injustices, unlike Barack Obama, Cain and West choose to dwell on the benefits of individual responsibility, unlimited opportunity, and patriotic allegiance to America.One thing is for sure: No one could ever accuse the outspoken Herman Cain of disagreeing with Barry purely because of skin color. Cain is bold as a lion and unafraid to debate Obama on the merits of conservative philosophy. In his 2011 CPAC speech, Mr. Cain rightly identified the three liberal tactics of "shifting the subject, ignoring the facts, and name-calling," which Cain "bundles together with the acronym 'SIN.'"Many believe the man who some refer to as the "Hermanator" could be President Obama's "worst nightmare -- a business mastermind, a natural problem solver and a black man of 'substance' who says he would 'take the race card off the table' in a challenge against Obama as the GOP presidential candidate in 2012."The keynote speaker at the 2011 CPAC, Colonel West did not exploit podium time to harp on racial, social or economic 'injustice,' but instead spoke of tried and true conservative concepts like "effective and efficient constitutional government, peace through strength, and staying true to...American values." West's speech touched upon the tragedy of American culture being "subservient to multiculturalism," the need for America to promptly dispose of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the travesty of granting Constitutional rights to terrorists, and how the United States must always remain faithful to Israel.During West's speech, the retired Army Lieutenant Colonel did not make his audience repeat catchy phrases or mislead anyone into believing he'd pay mortgages or fill their tanks with gasoline. West did not kowtow to unions, lobbyists, or abortion advocates, nor did he read from the Koran, make promises to discuss anything with any dictator "without preconditions," or depend on a teleprompter to jog his memory into recalling what were supposed to be the core convictions of his heart. The fact that Barack Obama was elected President of the United States was proof positive that the lessons of history, though hard and brutal, had been learned. Unfortunately, at the ballot box Americans yielded to the wrong influence and chose a president based on something besides character and substance. Many falsely believed that when America's first black president placed his hand on Lincoln's Bible, it was the "dawn of a new day." Instead, Obama ushered in new heights of racial division and a level of liberalism unprecedented in American history.Now as 2012 approaches, new voices offer a message of genuine "hope" and positive "change." On the horizon, the "dawn of a new America" approaches and with it comes a unique opportunity to replace America's first black president with a man who, secondary to being a patriotic American, just happens to be black.Hmmmmm......Lets hope there's still an America left by 2012?Read the full story here.

HT:Memri.Saudi Website: Saudi Military Helped Break Up Demonstrations In Bahrain.The Saudi Shi'ite website Rasid reported that there is fear in Saudi Arabia that the demonstrations in Bahrain will spread to Saudi Arabia. It further reported that Saudi military forces yesterday entered Bahrain to help the government there disperse demonstrators.Source .Related : Saudi Website : Increased Security Alert In East Of Country. The Shi'ite website Rasid reports that the Saudi Interior Ministry has stepped up security in the east of the country – an area where most of the countries Shi'ites live, as well as its main petroleum center. The alert is due to the fear of demonstrations like those in Tunisia and Egypt.Source.

HT:IsraelMatzav.Could the House of Saud come tumbling down?What would happen if 'our friends, the Saudis' were no longer our friends? Karen Elliott House writes in the Wall Street Journal that the consequences could be quite serious and the chances of the House of Saud falling are increasing."The gap between reform here and the demands of our young is widening," warns a senior prince. "It is a race against time because the young are tired of the status quo, tired of talk." Saudi Arabia is not Egypt. But even in this most shrouded and supposedly most stable of Arab societies, time is running out.Hmmm......It seems anything Obama "touches" is doomed for destruction.Read the full story here.

HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Indonesian cleric's trial puts focus on rising militancy."The judges are infidels; Bashir is a mujaheed (holy warrior)," several men in the audience shouted. "Evil will be defeated; Islam will be victorious".(Reuters) - The spiritual leader of the outlawed Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiah went back on trial Thursday in a case that refocuses attention on Indonesia's fight against Islamic extremism.The charges against Abu Bakar Bashir, which carry the death penalty and which he denies, include setting up and financing a terror training camp that plotted to kill President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.The trial began in the same week as two frenzied attacks by militant Muslim mobs. The hearing was immediately adjourned on a technicality until Monday.Indonesia has won praise for largely defeating Islamic terror, but analysts and rights groups are concerned a recent spike in religious intolerance shows extremism still has a hold on the world's most populous Muslim nation.Foreign investment has poured into Indonesia's bond and stock markets thanks to improved political stability and successful efforts to combat Islamic militancy since the last significant attack -- the bombing of two hotels in Jakarta in 2009.But this week has twice seen mobs of youths running riot in the name of defending Islam -- first killing three members of the Ahmadiyya sect that is considered heretical by mainstream Muslims, and then torching two churches to protest against the perceived light sentence of a Catholic accused of blasphemy.Despite no significant terror attacks in Indonesia for nearly two years, security in the capital is pervasive, with checkpoints placed at the entrance of all major shopping malls, hotels, embassies and government buildings.Wednesday's trial will be the third for the frail 72-year-old Bashir, who is officially the caretaker of an Islamic boarding school on Java island but has long been considered the spiritual leader of the shadowy Jemaah Islamiah movement, which seeks to establish a Muslim caliphate across Southeast Asia.He was found not guilty on appeal of terror offences in two previous trials that attempted to link him to the 2002 Bali bombings, but only spent time in prison for lesser charges such as immigration offences.Thursday, scores of his supporters filled the public gallery of a south Jakarta courtroom, waiting for him to be brought to the dock where he will be charged with helping establish a terror training camp and funding terror organizations -- offences which carry the death penalty.Bashir is also the "Amir" of the above-ground Jema'ah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT) Islamic group, which draws support from thousands of often unemployed youths who attend public rallies and sermons by firebrand preachers. Their ranks have provided recruits for even more radical organizations with links to Jemaah Islamiah and al-Qaeda.Analysts say that if Bashir is found guilty he would more likely face a long jail term than execution.But they say the threat remains of other terror groups forming across the archipelago of over 17,000 islands which are home to around 240 million people, most of them moderate Muslims."The highlight (of the indictment) is the defendant was gathering funds ... to be used for paramilitary training in Aceh and to purchase weapons," Andi Muhammad Taufik, the head of the prosecutors team told Reuters by telephone.Before that camp was fully established it was shut down by authorities following a raid in which three police officers and a civilian were killed.Police said the Aceh-based group had planned to assassinate President Yudhoyono and other government officials at an independence day ceremony last August.Police also said they held documents saying Bashir was the leader of a group which calls itself al Qaeda of Indonesia and which is the umbrella for four militant Islamic groups including Jemaah Islamiah, Jema'ah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT), Kompak, and Indonesia Islamic State (NII).Hmmmm......Obama "Indonesia is an example of religious tolerance".Read the full story here.

Russia Embraces Risky Offshore Arctic Drilling.MOSCOW — The Arctic Ocean is a forbidding place for oil drillers. But that is not stopping Russia from jumping in — or Western oil companies from eagerly following.Russia, where onshore oil reserves are slowly dwindling, last month signed an Arctic exploration deal with the British petroleum giant BP, whose offshore drilling prospects in the United States were dimmed by the Gulf of Mexico disaster last year. Other Western oil companies, recognizing Moscow’s openness to new ocean drilling, are now having similar discussions with Russia. New oil from Russia could prove vital to world supplies in coming decades, now that it has surpassed Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest oil producer, and as long as global demand for oil continues to rise. But as the offshore Russian efforts proceed, the oil companies will be venturing where other big countries ringing the Arctic Ocean — most notably the United States and Canada — have been wary of letting oil field development proceed, for both safety and environmental reasons.After the BP accident in the gulf last year highlighted the consequences of a catastrophic ocean spill, American and Canadian regulators focused on the special challenges in the Arctic. The ice pack and icebergs pose various threats to drilling rigs and crews. And if oil were spilled in the winter, cleanup would take place in the total darkness that engulfs the region during those months. Last week, Royal Dutch Shell postponed plans for drilling off Alaska’s Arctic coast, as the company continued to face hurdles from wary Washington regulators. The Russians, who control far more prospective drilling area in the Arctic Ocean than the United States and Canada combined, take a far different view. And if anything, the gulf disaster encouraged Russia to push ahead with BP as its first partner. In the view of Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin, BP is the safest company to hire for offshore work today, having learned its lesson in the gulf. “One beaten man is worth two unbeaten men,” Mr. Putin said, citing a Russian proverb, after BP signed its Arctic deal with Rosneft, the Russian state-owned oil company. The joint venture calls for the companies to explore three sections in the Kara Sea, an icebound coastal backwater north of central Russia. Read the full story here.

Amid Dispute Over Arrested American, State Department Requests $3.1 Billion in 2012 Aid for Pakistan. The Obama administration is asking Congress to approve $1.9 billion in military and economic aid to Pakistan in fiscal year 2012 and an additional $1.2 billion to boost its counterinsurgency capabilities along the border with Afghanistan.The $1.9 billion is included in the State Department’s core budget request released Monday, while the latter figure comes from a separate “Overseas Contingency Operations” (OCO) category – the Obama administration’s preferred term for what its predecessor called the war on terrorism.In a briefing Monday, a State Department official said the bulk of the $1.2 billion in the OCO category – $1.1 billion – was for the Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capability Fund (PCCF), a program to train Pakistan’s military and Frontier Corps (FC) “to conduct the fight along with border with Afghanistan.”The PCCF is the former PCF (Pakistan Counterinsurgency Fund), the more recent name reflecting the fact that the secretary of state directs the program with the concurrence of the secretary of defense, rather than the other way round as was the case in earlier years.“The PCCF program equips, trains, and supports Pakistani forces engaged in eliminating insurgent sanctuaries that threaten the stability of the government in Pakistan, security in Afghanistan, and present a danger to the region and to the United States,” the State Department said in its budget request.At $50.9 billion, the overall State Department budget request for fiscal year 2012 is up from the actual fiscal 2010 budget of $49.3 billion, but somewhat down from the fiscal 2011 request of $51.4 billion, according to an Office of Budget and Management factsheet. The 2011 budget has yet to be finalized by Congress. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with U.S. House Speaker John Bohner on Monday to express concern about House plans to slash the figure for State and foreign operations in its 2011 continuing resolution.Hmmmm......It won't be long before Pakistan turns against the US.Read the full story here.

Rift Between U.S. and Pakistan Deepens Over Detained American.In a show of the escalating diplomatic rift over a detained American in Pakistan, the U.S. cancelled talks in Washington involving the country.A U.S. State Department statement Sunday said the high-level meeting involving Pakistan, Afghanistan and the U.S. was called off "in light of the political changes in Pakistan," reported the Wall Street Journal.The man is reportedly Raymond Davis, an employee of a U.S.-based security company who was working under contract for the U.S. government in Pakistan, has been detained after authorities say he shot and killed two armed men. He will likely to be charged with murder. The U.S. government has given few details about the man, who it hasn't officially named. The embassy in Islamabad said the man, who it claims fired in self-defense, is covered by diplomatic immunity and should be immediately released, the Journal reported.But a senior Pakistan foreign ministry official said Washington's cancellation of the meeting was intended to pressure Pakistan to release the U.S. government employee.The U.S. last week suspended several bilateral engagements with Pakistan after a high court barred Pakistan's government from releasing Davis, Pakistani officials said.Pakistani officials said the Obama administration also has threatened to call off an upcoming state visit to Washington by President Asif Ali Zardari if the standoff over Mr. Davis doesn't end, reported the Journal.Hmmmmm......No word on the reports that the two Pakistanis killed where Pakistani intelligence agents?Read the full story here.

HT:DougRoss.One Chart to Rule Them All: the Obama Budget Apocalypse.I modified an excellent Wall Street Journal graphic to illustrate just how tragic and ineffectual President Obama's proposed budget cuts are.Consider the anticipated spending trajectory over the next decade as entitlement spending and interest payments balloon.This President is a walking, talking disaster and that's what the liberals are saying.On March 4, 2009, I wrote an article that included the statement "Obama's destruction of the economy is intentional."Two years later, my point is proved. Case closed.His budget proposal is so reckless, so wild, so egregious that there can be no doubt of his goal. I can only conclude that he seeks the destruction of America's capitalist system, free enterprise, and our way of life.When even moonbats like Andrew Sullivan are heading for the hills, it's safe to say that we are careening towards an unmitigated disaster.Hmmmm.....As i said yesterday"A walking,talking and spending Doomdsday machine".Read the full story here.

Iran unrest: MPs call for death of Mousavi and Karroubi.Inside Iranian Parliament as a group of conservative MPs called for the execution of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.Members of Iran's parliament have called for opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi to be tried and executed.State TV showed some 50 conservative MPs marching through parliament's main hall on Tuesday, chanting "Death to Mousavi, death to Karroubi".Thousands of opposition supporters protested in Iran's capital on Monday.An MP said two people were killed in violent clashes between protesters and security forces in central Tehran.The BBC received reports of banned demonstrations in other Iranian cities, including Isfahan, Mashhad and Shiraz.In the capital, dozens were detained, and opposition leaders including Mr Mousavi and Mr Karroubi were placed under house arrest.Police blocked access to Mr Mousavi's home in what the former prime minister's website said was intended to prevent him attending the Tehran rally, which was lauded by the US administration.Both he and Mr Karroubi - a former speaker of parliament and a senior cleric - disputed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009, which triggered protests that drew the largest crowds in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The authorities responded by launching a brutal crackdown.In a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency, conservative parliamentarians said: "Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi are corrupts on earth and should be tried." The charge "corrupt on earth" has been levelled at political dissidents in the past and carries the death penalty in Iran.Read the full story here.

'Mubarak's health declining; family refusing treatment'.Egyptian official tells 'a-Sharq' that deposed Egyptian leader may be in a coma; ambassador to US says "might" be in "somewhat bad health."Deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's "health is deteriorating drastically," an Egyptian security official told London-based Arabic language newspaper a-Sharq al-Awsat on Tuesday.The source added that those around Mubarak were refusing attempts to bring him abroad - most likely to Germany - to receive medical care and that attempts to do so have been rebuffed by those around him who wish to honor his desire to "let him die in his country." "I think it's only a matter of time," he said. It is "unfortunate that [it] ends up this way."Another Egyptian official told the paper that the octogenarian former dictator is in "what seems to be an almost complete coma." In light of his condition, the official denied rumors Mubarak was working to write his memoirs.Hmmmm........A era of peace is coming to an end,perhaps it's best that he doesn't witness what they will do to Egypt?Read the full story here.

Obama Budget Doubles National Debt to $26.3 Trillion in 10 Years.If the federal budget released by President Barack Obama today is implemented, it will double the national debt over the next 10 years. The current national debt is $13.56 trillion (end of FY 2010). By the end of 2021, that debt would rise to $26.3 trillion under the White House budget.The figures reflect the effects of Obama’s fiscal year 2012 budget priorities, particularly a federal deficit that never falls below $500 billion in any year between 2010 and 2021.In 2021, the national debt will have risen to $26.3 trillion, increasing by $1 trillion every year until 2021. Obama’s budget does not contain any plans for balancing the federal budget or reducing the national debt.Hmmmmm......How much longer can America afford Obama?Read the full story here.

HT:EmergingCorruption.Bankrupting America!By Alan Caruba. The very word “budget” suggests a financial plan that one expects to live within, based on how much money one earns. It suggests prudence, plus the intention to put aside some earnings as savings for future or unexpected needs. None of this applies to the Congress of the United States of America, nor White House administrations stretching back to the days when Franklin Delano Roosevelt won election in 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944. He would die in 1945, three months into his fourth term.That’s right, his fourth term! This was so unprecedented and so fearful that, in 1951 the 22nd Amendment was added to the Constitution, limiting any future president to two elected terms.The debacle known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac began back then, growing out of the notion that the government had to guarantee everyone they could live in their own home. By the time they neared collapse, they owned more than half of all the mortgages in the nation.My friend, Ziad K. Abdelnour, president and CEO of Blackhawk Partners, Inc., a venture capital firm, recently had one of his excellent commentaries posted on the website of the Financial Policy Council. The collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac led to their being put in a conservatorship. If you owned stock in either of these “government-sponsored entitles” its worth dropped to pennies while, noted Abdelnour, all Americans “became the underwriters of $5 trillion in mortgage backed securities.”“In September of 2008, we witnessed one of the most brazen and daring crimes ever to take place,” wrote Abdelnour. “It was pulled off, for the most part, in broad daylight and in full view of the whole world. In the space of a few days, this nation was the victim of an orchestrated theft of nearly six trillion dollars.”September 2008 was when then-Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, former chairman of Goldman Sachs, told Americans that he had just asked Congress to give him a blank check to spend billions of public funds to bail out Wall Street and avoid a financial collapse. Among the financial firms bailed out was Goldman Sachs that ended up with “at least $53 billion dollars from the U.S. government via the AIG bailout, Paulson’s ‘Troubled Assets Relief Program’, and Timothy Geithner’s later FDIC bailout called the ‘Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program.’” Geithner is the present Secretary of the Treasury.Throughout Abdelnour’s commentary, the same names keep showing up, Henry Paulson, Timothy Geithner, Goldman Sachs, the Federal Reserve.Events do not just “happen.” They are caused.Meanwhile, the Republicans in the House, where all spending bills must originate, are fussing and feuding over whether to cut $50 billion or $100 billion from the budget. Someone needs to tell them that the U.S. is broke. We are rapidly on our way to becoming Greece, Italy, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. “Current unemployment is officially about 9%; unofficially, it is almost twice that. Forty-five million Americans now receive government assistance to purchase food; nearly two million have filed bankruptcy, and more than a million have lost their homes in foreclosure proceedings.” Abdelnour cites factors few in Congress want to address.Despite this, in his first two years in office, President Obama has increased the size of U.S. debt more than all previous presidents combined. His new budget proposes $3.75 trillion in spending.I have always been wary of conspiracy theories, but sometimes the dates, the facts, and the personalities involved come together in too neat a package to ignore.Hmmmm.......“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.Read the full story here

IAEA's Amano: Iran still steadily producing uranium.The Post's Lally Weymouth talked to Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, last week in Vienna. Excerpts: Q. Many believe that Iran carried out nuclear weapons research in the past, including work on weaponization. . . . Do you agree with this? A. We receive information from various countries and collect information from our own sources that give us concern over the possible use of nuclear materials for military purposes - in the past and perhaps now. How is Iran complying with the IAEA? Your last report indicated some frustration. We ask them to declare - we ask about their activities. . . . We don't know if there are other activities outside their declaration. We are not sure if they are hiding something.Will the IAEA press for access to further locations in Iran? Yes, this is an issue that we have been discussing. We want to know more about what they are doing. . . . But Iran does not tell us well in advance about the construction of new facilities. You said the worm didn't do Iran much damage, that they have enough material to build a nuclear weapon if they stockpile low-enriched uranium?Iran is somehow producing uranium enriched to 3.5 percent and 20 percent. They are producing it steadily, constantly. The amount of enriched uranium has not been affected? The production is very steady.I can say they have well over 3,000 kilograms of enriched uranium of 3.5 percent and it is increasing. So they are stockpiling it? Yes. A Security Council resolution asks Iran to suspend [enrichment]. But contrary to this resolution they keep doing it.Hmmmm......Start looking at Venezuela and Turkey.Read the full story here.

Afghanistan defends takeover of women's shelters.Afghanistan on Tuesday defended a government plan to take over running of shelters for abused women, saying many women were tricked into leaving home without good reason and warning the refuges are rife with corruption. The plan triggered alarm among rights groups, who warn it will undo important progress made on women's rights since the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban, by placing victims of abuse at the mercy of a state lacking resources and often subject to the influence of misogynist powerbrokers. It follows accusations in the Afghan media that such shelters, run by foreign-funded non-governmental organisations, encourage immorality, prostitution and drug abuse. Afghanistan's caretaker Minister for Women's Affairs, Dr Husn Banu Ghazanfar, said the government had found numerous "violations" in the running of shelters. She suggested they were grossly over-funded and that it was unclear where the money had gone. Though conceding many women faced "problems" at home, Ghazanfar said some were "deceived" into leaving. "Some of them haven't had any problems in their homes and later they apologise to their families and to us," she said. Ghazanfar said she personally had no evidence of prostitution or drug abuse, but said such rumours had to be stopped.The new regulation, which needs cabinet approval, would see victims of domestic abuse subjected to compulsory forensic examination, barred from leaving without ministry approval and registered with the police. They can be evicted if they are "accepted" back by relatives, or upon marriage, which for many Afghan women is forced. Some run to shelters to escape unwanted husbands. Women suspected or accused of crimes would not be admitted. But running away from home is considered a "moral crime" in Afghanistan, like adultery, that women can be prosecuted for. Some women jailed for adultery say they were raped. New York-based Human Rights Watch said the plan reflected the growing strength of conservatives within President Hamid Karzai's government and was an overture to Taliban insurgents waging an escalating war against NATO and Afghan forces."The government is full of misogynist warlords and wide open to corruption," HRW Afghanistan researcher Rachel Reid said in a statement on Sunday. "A government shelter is far more likely to cave in to pressure from families and tribes to hand back the victims, which will put women's lives at risk."Read the full story here.

U.S. Policy to Address Internet Freedom.Days after Facebook and Twitter added fuel to a revolt in Egypt, the Obama administration plans to announce a new policy on Internet freedom, designed to help people get around barriers in cyberspace while making it harder for autocratic governments to use the same technology to repress dissent.The State Department’s policy, a year in the making, has been bogged down by fierce debates over which projects it should support, and even more basically, whether to view the Internet primarily as a weapon to topple repressive regimes or as a tool that autocrats can use to root out and crush dissent. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will lay out the policy in a speech on Tuesday, acknowledged the Internet’s dual role in an address a year ago, and administration officials said she would touch on that theme again, noting how social networks were used by both protesters and governments in the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries. The State Department plans to finance programs like circumvention services, which enable users to evade Internet firewalls, and training for human rights workers on how to secure their e-mail from surveillance or wipe incriminating data from cellphones if they are detained by the police. A report by the Republican minority of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to be released Tuesday, said the State Department’s performance was so inadequate that the job of financing Internet freedom initiatives — at least those related to China — should be moved to another agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. “Certainly, the State Department took an awfully long time to get this out,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, a former CNN correspondent and expert on Internet freedom issues who is now a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. “They got so besieged by the politics of what they should be funding.” Still, Ms. MacKinnon said that she believed the State Department’s deliberations had been thoughtful and the plan “is going to be effective if it’s couched within a broader set of policies.”Ron Deibert, the director of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, said that governments had been shifting from blocking the Internet to hacking and disabling it. Even in the United States, he noted, the Senate is considering a bill that would allow the president to switch off the Internet in the event of a catastrophic cyberattack.Hmmmm.....Read the full story here.

HT:Rferl.Iran.One Killed As Antigovernment Protesters Clash With Security Forces In Iran.Reports from Iran say one person was shot and killed as police moved to break up antigovernment demonstrations in the capital, Tehran, on February 14.Eyewitnesses have told RFE/RL that thousands of protesters answered calls from the opposition to turn out for a banned rally in support of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Demonstrators were met with opposition by security forces, who fired into the air and used tear gas to disperse the crowd in the streets leading to Azadi Square, the announced site of the main rally. The semiofficial Fars news agency reported gunshots killed one bystander and wounded others. Fars said "seditionists" from the banned rebel group the People's Mujahedin of Iran were responsible for the shooting.A student activist who took part in the February 14 protest told RFE/RL that security forces had shut down some of the streets leading to the square. He said he saw thousands of people marching in the streets of Tehran toward the square and that the number of protesters grew as darkness fell.The student activist also said he saw some protesters carrying canned food and warm clothes, "as if they were planning to spend the night in the streets.""We are ready to die for freedom. We said goodbye to each other last night in case something happens," said the young man, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "During last year's protests I saw Amir Javadifar. It could have been me," he added, referring to a protester who last year was arrested and died after being tortured.Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad claimed at the rally that antigovernment protests spreading across the Arab world -- including those which led to the ouster of the autocratic presidents of Tunisia and Egypt -- are an extension of the Islamic Revolution that toppled Iran's U.S.-backed monarch in 1979."Soon a new Middle East -- without the U.S. and the Zionist regime -- will be created and the oppressors will not have a place in the Middle East," Ahmadinejad said.Hmmmm......Did we not just hear something similar from Turkey's foreign minister?Read the full story here.

HT:RightTruth.Executions are Good !According to Mehr news agency, Iran’s chief justice, Ayatollah Mohseni Gorkani, told his students in an ethics class that “our life, tranquility and peace depend on executions”. After reading verses from the Quran, Ayatollah Gorkani further stated executions are dictated by the Holy book and must be done in order to preserve tranquility of life and peace in the society.Read the full story here.

HT:Memri.Iranian Majlis Speaker Calls to Prosecute Mousavi, Karroubi; Activists Call to Continue the Protests.Following yesterday's (February 14) protests in Iran's cities, in which thousands took part, Iranian Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani attacked the heads of the protest movement Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, saying they had "fallen into the trap set by the U.S. and the Zionists" and calling on the Majlis to have them prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Speaking at the Majlis, he said that "the two must repent, now that they have seen that the U.S. and Israel support their actions." He added that the U.S. and Israel had goaded the protesters to take to the streets and take part in illegal demonstrations, and condemned the "Zio-American anti-revolutionary and anti-patriotic activity of the rioters". Majlis members responded with cries of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel," and called to have Mousavi and Karroubi executed.Iranian Prosecutor-General Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei promised that the authorities would deal with those behind the riots firmly and swiftly. Protest movement leaders Mousavi and Karroubi are currently under house arrest. Read the full story here.

'Muslim convert' wife murdered along with her two children by monster husband had only stayed with him for 'sake of the kids'.The wife whose ‘abusive monster' husband murdered her and their two young children had only stayed with him for the 'sake of the kids', it has has been claimed.Joy Small, 24, was found dead in her home along with her three-year-old son Aubarr and daughter Chanarra, two, on Saturday afternoon.It is not yet known how they died, but it is thought police went to the flat after discovering the body of Miss Small’s husband, Aram Aziz, 32, in a country park the day before.Aziz, who was described as an ‘abusive monster’, is said to have once poured petrol over Miss Small’s head and tried to set it alight. Friends said she was so frightened of him that she installed a panic button in her flat and had kept a hammer under her pillow.Miss Small, a mother-of-three from Leicester, is believed to have split from her husband, an Iraqi Kurd, last year, but she later rekindled their relationship.Miss Small’s ex-husband Javed Ghaznavi, with whom she had one child, a boy of seven, claimed she had had got back with Aziz for the good of the children.Mr Ghaznavi, 32,said he had last spoken to her eight months ago.‘She was crying and was desperately upset,’ he said. ‘She was having problems with Aram and they had separated.‘He was not very good for her. She said he was always smoking drugs, he was caught shoplifting and was in trouble with the police. 'I saw Aram two months ago and he said they had got back together for the sake of their kids.When they split up, he’d left a message on her answerphone saying he would kill her and the children. He said she could never have another boyfriend.’Miss Bland added: ‘I went away last July, and when I got back she was quiet. She said she had a new boyfriend, but I had my suspicions she was back with him.‘In November, I found out she was and we fell out. I couldn’t stand by and let it happen. She had been warned by police and social services that if she got back with him, they’d take her kids off her.‘I didn’t want that to happen but I wish I’d followed my instincts now and said something. If I had, she might still be alive.‘At least she can rest in peace now. She is finally free of him.’Hmmmm.....Staying with a monster for the sake of the kids is the worst excuse.Read the full story here.

France: What the Halal?French Muslims Confused Over Halal Restrictions.The news suspended forks on their way to mouths, and sent supermarkets rushing to pull goods from shelves. Last month, the website Débat Halal claimed it had evidence that a popular brand of halal-certified poultry sausages marketed in France by a giant international food producer actually contain pork, rendering them forbidden — or haram — to Muslims. The accusation led many French Muslims to question how they can be sure that any of the halal food they buy meets certification standards — only to discover that no single set of standards exists for determining which products are halal and which aren't. Now, some observers are hoping that the haram hubbub may finally push France's Muslim leaders to agree upon a united code for the halal food sector — one of the biggest-booming niche markets in the nation. The stir began when Débat Halal published a Jan. 16 report saying that tests had detected pork — a substance forbidden under both halal and kosher rules — within halal-branded poultry sausages produced by Herta, a unit of global food giant Nestlé. Counter-tests revealed by Herta a week later found no traces of pork in their Knacki Halal poultry sausages.In recent months, revelations of mechanized slaughtering by some industrial poultry Producers — rather than the manual culling and bleeding halal requires — have led some experts to estimate that up to 90% of poultry products labeled as halal in France don't meet even the most basic, generally recognized standards. While trying to find out exactly what the national norms are for halal certification, French Muslims have found there is no unified set of criteria or inspection procedures to verify a product as being halal. Instead, food companies work along differing standards overseen by rival factions of France's Islamic community. For Muslim consumers paying a premium to make sure that what they're eating is compatible with their religious Beliefs, it's an upsetting revelation."Questions of halal in France are overseen by the [country's] three most influential Mosques — in Paris, Evry, and Lyon — and they each have their own criteria, inspectors, companies and products they approve and endorse," says Abbas Bendali, director of the Paris-based Solis Conseil marketing consultancy, and an expert on France's halal food sector. "France's Muslim community is a mosaic of national origins, customs, tastes and habits to begin with, but unless rivalries can be overcome and a unified system regulating halal food can be created, the French halal market will remain splintered." Hmmmm.......Read the full story here.HT:IslamInEurope.

HT:IslamInEurope.Belgium: 60% of halal food 'impure'. According to the Belgian halal federation, 60% of the halal products on sale are impure. "The bulk of the European halal market is in the hands of scoundrels who manipulate everything for their own interests," Farid El Machaoud, chairman of the federation, told De Morgen.According to El Machaoud you can get a 'halal stamp' without a thorough inspection, or it can be bought in France. He says that in practice it's often against the rules and the people who write out the certificates are not Muslim and therefore not qualified.In order to fight against the wild increase of incorrectly labeled products, European Association of Halal Certifiers was founded in Brussels February 24th.Hmmmmm.......Doesn't sound to "Kosher" to me.Read the full story here.

Almost 200 killed in south Sudan clashes: party.Nearly 200 people have been killed in attacks by a renegade militia in south Sudan's Jonglei oil state, the region's ruling party said on Tuesday, almost doubling earlier estimates of the death count."We express our sorrow and pain after the loss of nearly 200 people -- 197 people in Fangak county as a result of the heinous attack by George Athor's forces on a defenceless civilian population," the secretary general of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) Pagan Amum told journalists.Sudan's army said forces loyal to Athor, a former senior army officer who launched a revolt after losing in last year's elections, carried out a series of attacks in Jonglei last week. It earlier said 105 people died.The violence has reignited concerns for the security of the region where voters last month overwhelmingly voted to declare independence from the north in a referendum.Hmmmm.......And so it begun?read the full story here.

Russia - Two killed, 20 wounded in two Dagestan explosions. Two police officers were killed and about 20 wounded in two explosions in the Russian North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, a law enforcement source said Tuesday.A female suicide bomber blew herself up near a police station in the village of Gubden on Monday evening, killing one policeman and injuring several.In a short while, a second explosion followed. A Lada Priora car, stopped at the Gubden checkpoint for an inspection by security guards as it was heading toward the scene of the previous explosion, exploded killing one policeman and leaving about 17 people wounded.Earlier it was reported that five people were injured in the second blast.An investigation is underway.Hmmmm......Islam the religion of Peace.Read the full story here.

HT:TheAmericanDream.Worst Freeze In 60 Years Wipes Out Entire Crops Across The Southwestern U.S. And Northern Mexico.Get ready to pay a lot more for produce at the supermarket. In early February the worst freeze in 60 years wiped out entire crops all across the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico. Already, it has been reported that some U.S. supermarkets have doubled or even tripled prices for certain produce items. Yes, you read that correctly. The price of certain vegetables is actually doubling or even tripling in many U.S. supermarkets. The really bizarre weather that we have been seeing all over the globe this winter is really playing havoc with food prices. The global price of food hit an all-time record during the month of January, and most observers expect food prices to continue to soar. Even before this recent horrible freeze in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico, global food prices were pushed higher by unprecedented flooding in Australia and Brazil, and key agricultural areas of China are now experiencing their worst drought in 200 years. Things are getting really crazy out there. One crop that was hit particularly hard by the recent freeze was corn. In fact, officials in Mexico are estimating that four million tons of corn have been lost. That represents a full 16 percent of Mexico's annual corn harvest.Produce prices in the U.S. are eventually expected to return back to normal levels, but this just shows how dramatically food prices can change when a major disaster happens.Most Americans assume that the United States is generally immune to food price shocks, so this recent freeze is going to shake a lot of people up. A whole lot of Americans are going to be really surprised the next time they go shopping for fresh produce.Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

HT:JawaReport.Video: "Islamic Anti-Semitic Demonstration in Front of the Synagogue in Tunis".Here's a new video of the event antisemitic Islamists on Friday to the Great Synagogue of Tunis. The demonstrators shouted anti-Semitic slogans: "Jews Wait army of Mohammed is coming back!", "We'll redo the Battle of Khaybar" recalling the victory of the Prophet on the Jews in 628 and the traditional "ouakbar Allah!"Here's what they scream:« Khaybar, Khaybar, yya yahoud, jaysh muhammad saya'oud !» "O Jews, the army of Muhammad will return" !)...Hmmmm....."Islam the religion of peace".Read and see the full story here.

Justice minister joins sit-in to demand Dakamseh's release.Israel school girls' killer a 'hero': Jordan minster.Jordan's justice minister on Monday described a Jordanian soldier serving a life sentence for killing Israeli schoolgirls in 1997 as a "hero," joining a sit-in to demand his release."I support the demonstrators' demand to free Ahmad Dakamseh. He's a hero. He does not deserve prison," Hussein Mujalli, who was named minister last week, told AFP, after taking part in the sit-in held by the trade unions."If a Jewish person killed Arabs, his country would have built a statue for him instead of imprisonment."Mujalli, a former president of the Jordan Bar Association, was Dakamseh's lawyer."It is still my case and I will still defend him. It is a top priority for me," he said."Dakamseh needs a special pardon. Only the king can issue a special pardon," the state-run Petra news agency quoted Mujalli as saying.In March 1997, Dakamseh fired an automatic weapon at a group of Israeli schoolgirls as they visited Baqura, a scenic peninsula on the Jordan River near the Israeli border, killing seven and wounding five as well as a teacher.The attack came almost three years after Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty, only the second between an Arab country and the Jewish state.The motives of Dakamseh, who was 30 at the time and a married father of three, were never clear. Then king Hussein cut short a visit to Europe and rushed home to condemn the attack. He later travelled to Israel to offer his condolences to the families of the slain schoolgirls."We cannot imagine that a great fighter like Dakamseh is in jail instead of reaping the rewards of his achievement," the letter said.Jordan's powerful Islamist movement and the country's 14 trade unions, which have more than 200,000 members, have repeatedly called for Dakamseh's release.Hmmmm......"Great fighter"?Shooting a group of schoolgirls........ children?In which dimension are they living?Read the full story here.

HT:Wired.CIA Lawyer: How I Issued Drone ‘Death Warrants’.You can expect to see at least two people inside the secret bunkers in Virginia where the CIA pilots its lethal drones over Pakistan. One controls the distant drone, his hand on a joystick, ready to fire off a missile at a target below. Another is a CIA lawyer, watching to ensure that the operator is within his rights to attack his target. Call it a “punctilious” method to avoid civilian casualties and legal hot water, as one of those lawyers recently did — or call it the bureaucratization of a shadow war.Tara Mckelvey gets a very rare peek inside the processes that go into the drone strikes, an undeclared air war that peaked last year at 118 missile firings, up from 33 in 2008. Her conclusion, published today in Newsweek, is that the operations ordering them are “multilayered and methodical, run by a corps of civil servants who carry out their duties in a professional manner.” But even the CIA’s former top lawyer, John Rizzo, is blunt about his involvement in what he calls “murder.”Rizzo told Mckelvey that the process works roughly like this: the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center maintains a team of ten lawyers, who compile evidence that a prospective target constitutes a threat to the U.S. If Rizzo outlined the threshold that the lawyers have to meet, Mckelvey doesn’t report what it is, nor does she explain who asks the lawyers to compile a case on a particular target. But the CIA’s general counsel vets the case before issuing what Rizzo, who held the job during the Bush and early Obama administrations, calls a “death warrant.” The president doesn’t review the targeting list.What the CIA lawyers are reviewing the drone program for is a mystery. Some law professors contend that the very involvement of CIA civilians or contractors in an inherently military program like the drone strikes make their pilots “unlawful combatants,” as Georgetown’s Gary Solis tells Mckelvey. All the administration has said about its legal rationale for the strikes is that they must be “proportionate” to the threat and are “limited to military objectives,” i.e., they don’t intentionally target civilians. But as Mckelvey documents, there’s an awful lot of lawyers to review what is a murky legal standard, at least in public, for a shadow war.Hmmmm.......Who decides who lives or who dies?Read the full story here.

Monday, February 14, 2011

A large poster described as bearing images of ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei is at the center of the action. In the first video, a man dressed in a sweater identified as a member of the Basij militia attempts to gather up the poster off the street as the crowd of protesters in the vicinity chants, "Na Ghaza! Na Lobnan! Tunis o Misr o Iran!" (Not Gaza! Not Lebanon! Tunisia and Egypt and Iran!). Suddenly, a fight breaks out and the purported Basij member is swarmed. We cannot confirm the man's membership in the militia, but this description of the event has been independently supported by @madyar via Twitter.Source.

Opposition: Iran police arrest dozens of protesters.(Video) Security forces fire teargas to disperse thousands of opposition supporters chanting 'Death to the dictator' while marching toward Tehran square; dozens arrested during clashes with police in central Iran. Clinton slams 'hypocrisy' of Iranian government.VIDEO - Dozens of Iranian opposition supporters were arrested on Monday while taking part in a banned rally in Tehran to support popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, an Iranian opposition website said. "Witnesses say in some parts of Tehran security forces arrested dozens of protesters," opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi's Kaleme website reported.Security forces fired teargas to scatter thousands of opposition supporters marching toward a Tehran square, a witness said. There were also clashes between police and demonstrators, resulting in dozens of arrests, in Isfahan in central Iran, the country's third largest city, another witness told Reuters.The rallies amounted to a test of strength for the reformist opposition, which had not taken to the streets since Dec. 2009, when eight people were killed.The demonstrators marched towards Azadi (Freedom) Square, a traditional rallying point for protests in central Tehran dominated by a huge white marble arch. Hundreds of marchers also gathered in Isfahan and Shiraz, witnesses said.Turkish President Abdullah Gul, on a visit to Tehran, called on Middle Eastern governments to listen to the demands of their people, although he did not refer to Iran."We see that sometimes when the leaders and heads of countries do not pay attention to the nations' demands, the people themselves take action to achieve their demands," Gul told a news conference alongside Ahmadinejad.Speaking to reporters after meeting House Speaker John Boehner on Monday, Clinton said she and others in Barack Obama's administration "very clearly and directly support the aspirations of the people who are in the streets" of Tehran.Hmmmm......Obama silent.....The Islamic extremists are already in charge in Iran no need for "Change"?Read the full story here.

Man charged in killing of Pakistani politician gets Valentine's gifts | CNN.Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Supporters of an accused assassin of a Pakistani politician brought him Valentine's flowers and cards Monday, the same day a judge charged him with murder and terrorism acts, his lawyer said.Pakistani police have said Mumtaz Hussain Qadri confessed to gunning down Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab Province, outside an outdoor market in Islamabad last month.The suspect was serving as Taseer's security guard at the time of the shooting.Police said Qadri shot Taseer because of the liberal politician's campaign to amend Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws.The charges of murder and committing an act of terrorism each carry the possible death penalty in Pakistan.When the judge asked Qadri to enter a plea, he denied committing a crime, said Raja Shuja Ur Rehman, his lawyer."I acted against a blasphemer per the guidelines of the Quran and the teachings of the prophet Muhammad," Qadri told the judge, according to his lawyer. "I didn't kill an innocent person."Pakistani authorities held Monday's hearing inside the jail where Qadri is being kept for security reasons.Around 50 people stood outside the jail bearing flowers and Valentine's wishes for the accused assassin, his lawyer said.It wasn't clear whether jail officials delivered the flowers to Qadri.Since the shooting, Pakistan's hard-line religious groups have congratulated Qadri and held demonstrations calling him a hero, while condemning anyone who tries to change Pakistan's blasphemy laws.The next court date for Qadri is scheduled for February 26th when the prosecution is scheduled to present its evidence.Hmmmmm.......Come again?Isn't celebrating Valentine Haram for Islam?Read the full story here

Muslim Brotherhood to form political party in Egypt. In a statement on Monday, Egypt’s largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said it would establish itself as a political party once the Constitution has been amended to allow it to do so.The group asserted its confidence that Egypt’s Supreme Council of Armed Forces would meet all its promises pledged in its fifth statement to the nation on Sunday.The group asked the armed forces to declare a timetable for amending the Constitution and holding new presidential elections. It also called for abolishing military tribunals and pardoning all political detainees.It also called for free and fair parliamentary elections under judicial supervision, for abolishing the Emergency Law and forming a new cabinet of ministers approved by the public.Hmmmm......What happened to last weeks "Muslim Brotherhood: 'We are not seeking power"?It's called Al-taqiyyaDhimmi !Read the full story here.

Obama sends Congress $3.73 trillion budget.President Barack Obama sent Congress a $3.73 trillion budget Monday that holds out the prospect of eventually bringing deficits under control through spending cuts and tax increases. But the fiscal blueprint largely ignores his own deficit commission's view that the nation is imperiled unless huge entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare are slashed.Obama called his new budget one of "tough choices and sacrifices," but most of those cuts would be held off until after the end of his first term.Overall, Obama proposed trimming the deficits by $1.1 trillion over a decade. The administration is projecting that the deficit will hit an all-time high of $1.65 trillion this year and then drop sharply to $1.1 trillion in 2012, with an expected improvement in the economy and as reductions in Social Security withholding and business taxes expire."Presidents are elected to lead and address big challenges," said Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. "The big challenge facing our economy today and our country tomorrow is the debt crisis. He's making it worse, not better."Even some Democrats complained that Obama needed a more vigorous attack on future budget deficits."We need a much more robust package of deficit and debt reduction over the medium- and long-term. It is not enough to focus primarily on cutting the non-security discretionary part of the budget," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who called for a budget presentation matching the ambition of Obama's deficit commission.Hmmmm.....When will Congress stop this walking, talking and spending doomsday machine?Don't these politicians have any concience on what they're doing to their children ,grandchildren and the future Americans. Read the full story here.

HT:TheDailyDish.Obama To The Next Generation: Screw You, Suckers.The logic behind president Obama's budget has one extremely sensible feature: it distinguishes between spending that simply adds to consumption, and spending that really does mean investment. His analogy over the weekend - that a family cutting a budget would rather not cut money for the kids' education - is a sound one. We do need more infrastructure, roads and broadband, non-carbon energy and basic science research, and some of that is something only government can do. In that sense, discretionary spending could be among the most important things government could do to help Americans create wealth themselves. And yet this is the only spending Obama wants to cut.To all those under 30 who worked so hard to get this man elected, know this: he just screwed you over. He thinks you're fools. Either the US will go into default because of Obama's cowardice, or you will be paying far far more for far far less because this president has no courage when it counts. He let you down. On the critical issue of America's fiscal crisis, he represents no hope and no change. Just the same old Washington politics he once promised to end.Hmmmm.....By now you could all start your own business in snake oil after the amount he sold to all of you.Read the full story here.

Obama's drilling moratorium causes major company to go bankrupt.Seahawk Drilling Inc. said it has filed for bankruptcy protection and plans to sell its fleet of offshore drilling rigs to a competitor for $105 million.Seahawk, which announced the deal with Hercules Offshore Inc. Friday, has been hurt by a slowdown in Gulf of Mexico drilling after the BP oil spill last April. The government halted drilling in deep waters and imposed tough new rules that have curtained all energy exploration in U.S. waters.Seahawk owns a fleet of 20 jackup rigs for shallow water exploration, while Hercules owns 30 rigs, vessels and other equipment. It also provides drilling services. The deal creates a larger company with a more diverse fleet and greater operational flexibility, Seahawk said.Both companies are based in Houston.Hercules Offshore plans to buy Seahawk's assets using 22.3 million shares of its stock, $25 million in cash to retire Seahawk debt and additional cash for working capital. The Feb. 10 closing price of $3.62 per share for Hercules' stock brings the deal's value to $105 million.Hmmmm...."Change" you can see?Don't worry "together we thrive" over the cliff in to the abbys!Read the full story here.

What did Davutoğlu mean?Evaluating recent developments in Egypt and the Middle East on CNN Türk on Saturday, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said “a common awareness that is outside the nation-state” was emerging in the region. Davutoğlu also characterized this as the “start of a historic turnover” in the Middle East which cannot be rolled back.At first glance this appears an innocent enough remark given that he went on to stress the importance of democracy and the will of the people as this process unfolded. However, a deeper look at this remark may merit a different assessment of what he is saying.It is clear that “a common awareness” is spreading across the Middle East which has the notion of “people power” at its heart. It is also clear that the driving force of this awareness is a demand for justice, equality and higher standards of living. From a secular perspective these are commendable views.However, if one is to take Davutoğlu’s remarks from the perspective of political Islam, it is clear that the hope is that this “awareness” will channel “the democratic will of the people” toward more Islamic regimes, which ultimately have less to do with the notion of a nation-state and more to do with the idea of international Islamic unity.This, at any rate, is Iran’s open desire judging by the statements of the highest echelons of the mullah regime in that country concerning developments in Egypt.If Davutoğlu is referring to the emergence of a common awareness which, while being above the notion of being a nation-state, has at its heart a call for justice and democracy in the universal sense, then there is no problem. If, on the other hand, he is talking of a common awareness that is emerging which has Islamic identity at its core, then there are problems in what he is saying.The notion of “Dar al-Islam” (“the House of Islam”), like the notion of “Christendom” throughout much of European history, is a universal concept as far as orthodox Muslims are concerned. Therefore, it can be debated whether an Islamic outlook on life is in the final analysis compatible with the “nation-state,” which ultimately divides the “House of Islam.”Assessing Davutoğlu’s remarks in this light, one cannot help but wonder if this is what he suggests when referring to an “emerging awareness above the concept of nation-state.” Given the closeness the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, feels toward Islamic regimes and groups, as well as some of its practices at home that upset Turkish nationalists and secularists alike, one is forced to ask this question.We will, as mentioned, give Davutoğlu the benefit of the doubt and assume that what he meant is that a common secular democratic awareness is on the rise in the region, and this is what cannot be rolled back.But he must understand in return that given the AKP’s political outlook, which is based on an Islamic worldview, any remark emanating from the government, such as his words to CNN Türk cited above, cannot be taken at face value.Hmmmmm.......Someone is dreaming of an Islamic Caliphat.And these are Obama's friends.Read the full story here.

HT:Memri.Al-'Awlaki to Muslim Journalists: 'A Journalist Is Responsible to Allah for What He Presents to the People'.Keep Exposing the Crimes of the U.S. and Its Agents.Hmmmm.......Now read the next post!Why would he do this?Read the full story here.

HT:AmericanThinker.Obama administration official urges cable companies to carry Al-Jazeera.AL Jazeera is filled with anti-American propaganda. It is also awash in anti-Semitism. The material broadcast stokes terror and violence.Why would the person who Barack Obama appointed to be the Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, Juliette Kayyem, advocate American cable companies carry the channel-a channel that cannot help but inflame tensions and anger and one that is not known for unbiased accuracy.From an op-ed by Kayyem in the Boston Globe: FOR THE past few weeks, a parallel plot line to the revolutions in the Arab world has been playing out in the media. With rare exceptions, the largest American cable and satellite providers simply do not provide viewers access to Al Jazeera English, the cousin to the powerful Qatar-based world news network.AJE has launched a full-fledged campaign - including advertisements quoting, of all people, major US news figures - to convince cable carriers to open their programming. But most have declined: Burlington, Vt., is the closest city to Boston where viewers can see the network on television.AJE's battle with the cable carriers is major news in the Middle East. Not carrying the network sends a message to the Arab world about America's willingness to accept information, unfiltered, from the very region we spend so much time talking about. These television wars began not in Tunisia or Egypt, but in Iraq.We have enough terror apologists in the media already without an entire station devoted to obscuring the truth being beamed in to America's homes.Hmmmm........"I will stand with my Muslim Brothers"?Read the full story here.

HT:Memri.A Looming Superpower Clash Triggered by Pakistan.The U.S.-led war against the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan has deteriorated into a growing open conflict with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and threatens to rapidly fall into a full-blown war with Pakistan. Signs of such an upcoming clash between Pakistan and the U.S. can already be seen.In anticipation of such a full-scale clash with America, Pakistan is seeking an enhanced role for China on its side, thereby triggering a possible superpower clash, involving the U.S., China, Russia, NATO powers, and other regional players.The ongoing deterioration between the U.S. on the one hand and the ISI-led Pakistani government on the other is on the verge of falling into an open clash.Indeed a clash has begun, both on the battlefields and in the intelligence arena, as witnessed by the following:

The Military Level: Pakistan is Directly Involved in Afghanistan.

The Intelligence Level: ISI is Sabotaging American Intelligence Efforts.

Raymond Davis, an official of the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, was arrested for killing two Pakistani nationals. The Pakistani leaders have said that the two Pakistani nationals were innocent citizens. However, a report in a Pakistani daily has revealed that the two were members of Pakistani intelligence.Hmmmm.......Give them a few Billion Dollars more?Read the full story here.

"If you want to live under sharia law, go back to the hellhole country you came from or go to another hellhole country that lives under sharia law," said Kanwar, who is a professor emeritus of sociology at Mount Royal University in Calgary.About one dozen families who recently immigrated to Canada are demanding that the Louis Riel School Division in Winnipeg excuse their children from music and coed physical education programs for religious reasons.The families believe that music is un-Islamic - just like the Taliban believe and then imposed on the entire population of Afghanistan - and that physical education classes should be segregated by gender even in the elementary years.The school division is facing the music in a typically Canadian way - that is, bending itself into a trombone to try to accommodate these demands, even though in Manitoba, and indeed the rest of the country, music and phys. ed are compulsory parts of the curriculum.Officials say they may try to have the Muslim children do a writing project on music to satisfy the curriculum's requirements. The school officials have apparently consulted the Manitoba Human Rights Commission, and they have also spoken to a member of the Islamic community suggested by those very same Muslim parents.In any event, the school district is trying to find a way to adapt the curriculum to fit the wishes of these families, rather than these families adapting to fit into the school and Canadian culture.Mahfooz Kanwar, a member of the Muslim Canadian Congress, says he has some better ideas."I'd tell them, this is Canada, and in Canada, we teach music and physical education in our schools. If you don't like it, leave. If you want to live under sharia law, go back to the hellhole country you came from or go to another hellhole country that lives under sharia law," said Kanwar, who is a professor emeritus of sociology at Mount Royal University in Calgary.That might be putting things a little more forcefully than most of us would be comfortable with, but Kanwar says he is tired of hearing about such out-of-tune demands from newcomers to our country. "Immigrants to Canada should adjust to Canada, not the other way around," he argues.He makes it clear, that like most Canadians, he is pleased and enjoys that Canada has citizens literally from every country and corner in the world, as it has enriched this country immensely. But it's official multiculturalism - the state policy "that entrenches the lie" that all cultures and beliefs are of equal value and of equal validity in Canada that he objects to."The fact is, Canada has an enviable culture based on Judeo-Christian values - not Muslim values - with British and French rule of law and traditions and that's why it's better than all of the other places in the world. We are heading down a dangerous path if we allow the idea that sharia law has a place in Canada. It does not. It is completely incompatible with the idea and reality of Canada," says Kanwar, who in the 1970s was the founder and president of the Pakistan-Canada Association and a big fan of official multiculturalism. Kanwar says his views changed when he started listening to the people who joined his group. They badmouthed Canada, weren't interested in knowing Canadians or even in learning one of our official languages. They created cultural ghettos and the Canadian government even helped fund it."One day it dawned on me that the reason all of us wanted to move here was going to disappear if we didn't start defending Canada and its fundamental values." That's when Kanwar started speaking out against the dangers of official multiculturalism.Kanwar says for years, some "non-whites like me" have felt comfortable pointing out the failings of official multiculturalism. What's encouraging is that now "whites" or the majority culture and its leaders are starting to sound the alarm.Cameron ended his speech by saying: "This terrorism is completely indiscriminate and has been thrust upon us. . . . We need to confront it with confidence."At stake are not just lives, it's our way of life. That's why this is a challenge we cannot avoid - and one we must meet."Hmmmm......If i would say this would it make me a bigot?Probably yes.....so am i being discriminated?Read the full story here.

Jordan - 36 Jordanian tribal leaders break silence with unprecedented letter criticizing King Abdullah's wife accuse her of 'serving own interests, stealing money from treasury', warn of uprising similar to Egypt.Will Jordanian Queen Rania Al-Abdullah and her husband be next in line to flee their homeland, as was the case with the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt? In a letter published this week by 36 Jordanian tribal leaders, who represent nearly 40% of the population and play an important role in the kingdom's politics, the Queen was criticized relentlessly.In the letter, Rania was accused of "corruption, stealing money from the Treasury and manipulating in order to promote her public image – against the Jordanian people's will."The tribal leaders compared the queen to the wife of former Tunisian president Leila Ben Ali, who stole from her country's treasury for years, giving her family members vast sums of money and land at the expense of the Tunisian citizens."We call upon the King to return lands and farms given to the Yassin family (Rania's family). The land belongs to the Jordanian people," they wrote. Such a letter criticizing the royal family can lead to a three year jail sentence in Jordan.The tribal leaders warned that if the royal family fails to act quickly and implement the new financial and social reforms and move towards a democratic regime, they will suffer the same fate of Tunisia and Egypt'd leaders. It was also mentioned that Jordan is suffering from "an authority crisis" and from a growing influence of "corrupt businessmen who surround the decision makers, affect political decisions and ignore national interests." The tribal leaders called to "put these corrupt people who stole from the country on trial, regardless of their status.""Sooner or later Jordan will be a destination for a similar uprising like the ones in Tunisia and Egypt because of oppression of freedom and robbing from public funds," said the letter.The tribal leaders accused Rania of "building centers intended to strengthen her status and serve her interests."A Jordanian citizen and a member of a large tribe in the country said that the Jordanian authorities "pressured a few tribes in the past days and told them to be carful what they say to the global media. We're still loyal to the Hashemite crown, but we believe that King Abdullah has to stop his wife and her family from taking advantage of their power, otherwise the crown might be in danger."Last September, Rania celebrated her 40th birthday, and many criticized her for spending an "enormous" amount of money and having a very "ostentatious" party "at the expense of the treasury and the poor."Hmmmm.....Sounds like another "Let them eat cake" story.Read the full story here.

Bankrupting Terrorism - One Lawsuit at a Time.Shurat HaDin—Israel Law Center is an Israeli based civil right organization and world leader in combating the terrorist organizations and the regimes that support them through lawsuits litigated in courtrooms around the world. Fighting for the rights of hundreds of terror victims, Shurat HaDin seeks to bankrupt the terror groups and grind their criminal activities to a halt - one lawsuit at a time.Hmmmm.....Injustice is relatively easy to bear; it is justice that hurts. ~H.L. Mencken.Read the full story here.

Turkish comics magazine apologizes for anti-religious joke.Popular weekly satirical Turkish comic magazine Penguen has apologized for a caricature featuring what many called irreverently anti-religious content after reactions from Muslims.In the graphic panel in question, a member of the crowd praying at a mosque calls God from his cell phone and asks if he can leave early because he has an errand to run, while the rest of the crowd looks at him in shock. A sign on the mosque’s wall reads, “There is no Allah – Religion is a Lie.”The caricature was scanned and shared on the Internet on Sunday night by thousands of people on social platforms like Twitter and Facebook, raising a lot of criticism and anger. The magazine released an explanation Monday afternoon apologizing for the work. The explanation stated the work was not the cover caricature, the only caricature that reflects the consensus of the publication. The statement noted that artists are free to write or draw anything on their own pages: “We may or may not like a single caricature, but it is important to preserve this area of freedom in general. We are respectful toward the criticism, too. We are sorry about the reactions to this caricature. We apologize to those people who perceived [the caricature] as disrespectful.”Hmmmmm.......Not only the Danish cartoonists are in danger it seems.Read the full story here.

HT:Memri.Egyptian Opposition Leader Ayman Nour Calls for Referendum on Camp David Accords.Ayman Nour: Much can be said about the Camp David accords. We believe that we should abide by our international commitments, but we should also make the others abide by our rights and by their own international commitments. With regard to the Camp David accords in particular, the situation is complicated. In practice, the Camp David accords have come to an end. More than 30 years have passed since this agreement was signed, and many things on the ground require amendments. These amendments must be conducted in keeping with the interests and decisions of the Egyptian people. We will not impose anything on the Egyptian people, but I personally believe that if it were up to me, I would ask to conduct a referendum among the people with regard to this agreement, and we would abide by the decision of the people. We want true participation of the people, and to gauge the people's position on all the significant issues, one of the most important of which is the Camp David accords. Some people believe that this agreement is a thing of the past, and that it must be developed in a correct manner. They believe that some of the terms are humiliating to the Egyptian side. I belong to this group of people. Other people believe that the Camp David accords give Egypt certain guarantees on the ground, and that these must not be jeopardized at present. I don't maintain this position, but at the end of the day, my opinion is not the only one that counts. We should hold a referendum.Hmmmm.......Wel done Mr President.Read the full story here.

Saudi had 1,115 family violence cases in 2010.Saudi Arabia had nearly 1,115 family violence cases in 2010 and most of them were against females, according to official data.The capital Riyadh had the worst record, with nearly 425 officially registered cases, the ministry of social affairs said in a report.The report, published in local newspapers, showed 979 of the cases were against females and that bodily harm topped the list of family violence cases in the Gulf kingdom.“Other main cases involved psychological harm, sexual assault and verbal attacks,” the report said.Hmmmm.......these are the reported cases?Read the full story here.

HT:TheAmericanThinker.A Tipping Point Is Nearing.We are facing a tipping point. There will soon be a crisis affecting US citizens beyond any experienced since the Great Depression. And it may happen within the year. This past week three awful developments put a dagger into the hope for a growth-led recovery, which held promise of possibly averting a debt and currency implosion crushing the American economy.The first was a little-noticed, but tragic, series of events in the newly elected House of Representatives. The speaker, Mr. Boehner, had given the task of fashioning the majority's spending cut agenda to Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin), a rising conservative star representing the vocal wing of fiscal conservatives in the House. Promising to cut $100 billion of government spending, Mr. Boehner spoke before the elections of the urgency to produce immediately when Republicans took control.Unlike the Great Depression, however, we will enter such a shock in a weakened state, with few producers among us and record mountains of debt. More cataclysmic is the specter of inadequate food, as less than 4% of us farm, and those that do may cease to be as productive or may not accept devalued currency as payment, should the tipping point be crossed. Corn and wheat prices in the U.S. have nearly doubled in less than 12 months, using our rapidly evaporating currency as the medium of exchange.The time for action has passed, which may only become apparent as the "aid" of easy money becomes seen as the harm that it is. May we all be spared the worst, but I offer no such prayers for those responsible. The harm that comes will be swifter, and more severe, than most of them thought possible.Read the full the story here.

In Memory Of Alexander Munch (1948 - 2012).

Israeli Six-Day War Vet.

Previous Blogs here and here."
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the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." George Orwell.

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Irshad Manji.

"Muslim refusenik" is a phrase Manji uses to identify herself as someone who refuses to "join an army of robots in the name of God.".

Ayaan Hirsi Ali .

Wafa Sultan .

"Telling the truth after proper investigation is the height of courage." - Wafa Sultan.

Hagarism - The Making of the Islamic World.

Pakistani Women's Human Rights Organisation

Persian2English -

Stop Child Executions

I Stand With Israel !

Koran 7:7, where G-d Himself bequeaths the Land of Israel to the Jews, as a nation who thought themselves weak, and blesses them with goodness.Source

Shariah: The Threat to America

This book is based on the statements of the world's leading Shariah authorities and Shariah academic scholars.

The Abuse of Holocaust Memory.

Myths of Islam

"Religion does not require women to veil their hands, feet and faces or enjoin any special type of veil. Tribal custom must not impose itself on the free will of the individual."

Amanullah Khan - King of Afghanistan (1919-1929).

The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, head of Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni world.“The niqab is a tradition and has nothing to do with Islam,” said Sheikh Tantawi, vowing to ban it in Al-Azhar schools.After the girl complied he insisted she should not wear it any more.“I tell you again that the niqab has nothing to do with Islam and it is only a mere custom. I understand the religion better than you and your parents.” The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar imam vowed to issue a ban against the face-veil in all schools linked to Al-Azhar.“Source

The Jewish Holocaust.

The Armenian Holocaust.

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